Who

With the official kick-off of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign this weekend in Ohio, it's clearly time to test out a few attack lines on Republican opponent Mitt Romney. Think of it as the start of a boxing match. In the blue corner, Team Obama is trotting out to the centre of the ring and throwing a few jabs just to see what sticks to Romney's square-cut chin.

What

This is a slick 30-second TV spot of a kind we are going to be seeing a lot of this year. As such, it has to pack a lot in to a limited space, in the way that longer internet videos do not. Called "Swiss Bank Account", it an attempt to portray Romney as part of a wealthy financial elite that has little understanding of the issues facing ordinary Americans.

When

It went up Tuesday in three key battleground states: Ohio (as always), Virginia and Iowa. One almost feels sorry for the fine residents of the Buckeye State. Every four years, without fail, they get swamped by ads from both sides thanks to each campaign's recognition of their permanent status as a battleground state. You'd think it would be enough to make Ohio voters go permanently red or blue, if for no other reason than to stop the relentless flow of political ads.

Why

Any political campaign worth its salt wants to get in early and define an opponent as quickly as possible. But there appears to have been a genuine debate within the Obama camp on how to best to deal with Romney. Do you go for him as a flip-flopper? Or do you try to hoist him by his own petard following his GOP primary attempt to portray himself as a rightwing conservative?

It's a tough one and this ad can be seen as part of the process of discovering what works. So it develops a line of attack (that Romney is a wealthy elitist), and now, strategists will sit back and see if it sticks.

How

The ad begins a long way from where it ends, by critiquing attack ads against Obama which it says have been funded by "Big Oil". Then it segues into Obama's "clean energy" policy, which it says creates new jobs.

"President Obama's clean energy initiatives have helped create jobs for projects across America, not overseas," the voiceover informs us, accompanied by a map of the US with little blue dots breaking out all over it like some form of job-creating acne. A smiling, yet determined portrait of Obama looks on.

Amazingly, despite the vast amount of ground covered already in this highly cafeinated ad, we are a mere 14 seconds into it. "What about Mitt Romney?" the ad then asks, using the overseas lines to jump into an attack on the economy, claiming Romney has supported or aided the shipping of US jobs overseas to India and China.

"He's still pushing tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas," the ad concludes. Just to hammer home the point, it shows a picture of a disused American factory next to a photo of Romney bearing an open-mouthed expression that looks like he just sat on a nail. And thus, finally, we get to the punchline. "It's just what you'd expect from a guy who had a Swiss bank account," it concludes.

That's a strong finish. The economy is going to decide this election and it makes sense – given many Americans' basic sense that the higher echelons of corporate America have sold them out – to go after Romney like this. Overall, though, the ad feels rushed and all over the place: in 30 seconds, it tries to pack in a defence against attacks, a swipe at Big Oil, a boost to Obama's energy policy and then slam Romney on jobs, while claiming he is an elitist. It is simply too much information for the slot.

Like any boxer in the opening round of a fight, Team Obama needs to take things a bit slower and throw one good punch that connects, not a flurry of jabs that just confuses the audience. It should have taken the last 15 seconds and expanded that to its whole length. Still, there is an awful long time until November to get it right.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.

More than $1bn will be spent on campaign ads in the 2012 race for the White House, as candidates woo voters in primaries and for the presidency: guardiannews.com commentators analyse the ads, decode the messaging and assess what truth there is in political advertising